Liquid or center-filled gum and other confectionery products are in popular demand today. These products have a solid exterior portion and a soft or liquid-type center. The outer portion can be chewing gum or bubble gum of some type, while the liquid center portion can be a flavored material typically having a syrup-like consistency.
There also are products having a chewing gum or bubble gum core with a hard sugar or sugarless shell on the exterior. These products include, for example, Chiclets.RTM., Clorets.RTM., and Dentyne-Ice.RTM.. Both liquid-filled and coated gum products are in popular demand and commercially successful today.
There are numerous mechanisms and systems known today for forming liquid-filled gum, coated gum products, and other confectionery products. One of these systems is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,963 to Graff et al.
Due to difficulties in manufacturing processes, three-phase gum products having a liquid-filled center portion, a second layer of chewing gum or bubble gum material, and a hard outer shell or coating have not been widely introduced or accepted. Significant problems are present relative to maintaining the liquid-filled center portion intact without leaking and providing commercially acceptable finished surfaces on the final coated products.
One of the problems in particular with coated pellet-type gum products is that they have a tendency to stick together during tumbling and coating creating a large percentage of waste or unacceptable commercial products. Often two or more products join together during the coating process, or products initially joined but later separated still have unsatisfactory surface irregularities.
There is a need for producing three-phase liquid-filled gum products with hard coated shells in a more efficient and commercially acceptable manner.